A New Dawn
by SunWhisper
Summary: This is just a continuation of Zero 4 I've dreamed up, It kinda just came to me and i let it flow, chapters will be comming for now just know that the couplings are going to be zeroxciel and harpuiaxleviathan, if you think harpuia and leviathan are sibblings, well you're wrong, they had diferent creators, deal with it.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Sacrifices Made

* * *

This first chapter is just a retelling of the ending for Zero 4, I hope i did a good job, and that I did justice to such a great ending. Without further ado enjoy.

EDIT: minor changes to the text itself making it generaly more pleasant to read based on feedback, chapter 2 comming soon enough.

 _"thinking"_

"Talking"

narrating

* * *

Zero could barely stand, one final fight ahead. Weil, in front of him, had just fused with the space station itself, probably not as powerful as omega, X, or even Sigma before him. Zero thought to himself: _"My past seems so clear to me now, fighting sigma, meeting axl, the time I spent with X, even the Elf wars themselves, Weil is a joke compared to any of them, yet in this state..."_ he conteplates his battered body from the years of sustained punishment, a deep cut underneath his right eye, _"omega did that one, destroyed most of my right side too..."_ The left side of his helmet bashed, in, his gauntlet emiting small shocks and a bit of lightning from time to time, _"The armies of Neo arcadia..."_ , looks at all the other cuts and bruises on his body, _"Leviathan 1 year back, Harpuia 2 years ago, Fefneer, Phantom, Elpizo, and alot of these from omega. This is about the most pathetic state I've ever been in."_ Weil continued his speach.

"The reploid hero... Protecting justice and humanity... I am one of those humans you were sworn to protect! Do you have it in you to defeat me?!"

Zero doesn't even need to think of an answer, he already knows Weil's rethoric all too well.

"I never cared about justice, and I never recall calling myself a hero... I have allways fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy apears in front of me, I will destroy it!"

Ciel's calls for his name echoed in the background and pierced his ears like the sharpest of knives.

"Ciel... Believe in me!"

A final cry from Ciel is heard as Zero charges, forward, into his battle with Weil. The battle is huge, Zero runs and leaps towards Weils Core only to get wipped back by one of the Tubes comming from the space station, Weil procedes to charge up and fire the central lazer from the core itself which zero dodges out of the way every miliseccond a mist of red drops behind zero as his blood flies up due to the rapid velocity of the falling space station, Zero's eyes spot an opening as the lazer clears, he lunges towards the core only to get shot by a seccond time, by the lazer and then the turrets that sprung up from the station. Weil laughs at the now bleeding out reploid on the floor.

"IT'S ALREADY IN MOTION ZERO, AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP IT! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH."

Zero gets back on his feet, his left arm being nearly broken off, meerly a few strings of it keep it attatched to his body, blood comming out of every wound he took, his new body was at it's limit, he coughed out blood, as he charged in again, This time, with increased speed, going super sonic nearly as soon as he started running, Weil responded, he had the turrets firing, his lazer was all over the place, even the tubes from the space station swung at the red streak that was now Zero, as he jumps at the core itself, penetrating it with his Saber. the explosions being heard from inside Weil's body.

"As expected... Hero..."

Weil screams out while his insides explode, the damage from this smaller explosions pounding his own core and that of the space station into a massive explosion, Zero taking it's full force.

Back on the ground, Ciel tries to reach Zero:

"Ragnarok... is... breaking apart... most of it will burn up on entry into the atmosphere... Impact with Area Zero adverted... Mission... successful..."

"Zero! Come in Zero! Zero... Please... Come in..."

Only stactic and a snowy screen was what Ciel got in response, as the navigator stated.

"There's no response from the reciever..."

These words cut into Ciel's heart, like a hot knife through butter, like someone had just dropped a bucket of ice cold water on her. She turned around and she left the Command Centre.

"Ciel!"

The navigator called, but there was no response on screen, there was no response from Ciel either, she continued to walk out into area Zero, the spot where 200 years earlier the space station Eurasia colided with the earth, almost extinguishing life on the planet.

The residents of the Area Zero encampment and the resistance soldiers stationed there, looked up to the sky in awe. One of the children called out.

"Oh! A shooting star... Alot of shooting stars!"

Neije spoke up - Those are... fragments from Ragnarok, so... he did it...

Ciel runs up to them, they had never seen Ciel run like that, Cervaux quickly asks her:

"Ciel! Did you reach Zero?"

The desolated look on Ciel's face as she finaly stops panting from the sprint she had just taken says it all.

"Zero... Why..."

One of the resistance soldiers speaks up.

How could this happen... After saving all of us... And just when humans and reploids were finaly comming together... What do we do now?

There was silence for a few secconds

"It's ok..." Ciel says holding back her tears "I'm sure Zero is... Still out there... And one day he'll come back to us"

With this she runs off again towards a hill nearby while neije whispers to herself:

"Ciel..."

Ciel Ran and Ran untill she got to the top of the hill and finaly droped to her knees crying, she couldn't take it anymore, the pain was just too much and too real for her to take it, she cried like the broken hearted girl she was, the green of Area zero in the night looked pale now. the hill she was on had a great view of the surrounding area, and atop it rested a single tree. She was still sobbing when she saw it... one half of his helmet, the left half, the one that hadn't been nearly destroyed by omega, it was covered in blood, but more importantly, Zero wasn't attatched to it, Ciel, couldn't think anymore... She grabbed the helmet piece, and she walked down the hill, with a now blank expression on her face, she went to her room. she closed the door, she placed the remains of her fallen crimson knight on her desk and she cried...

* * *

Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of "A New Dawn". Leave a review telling me what i can improve on, if you spot any grammar errors that i might have missed and if you're enjoying the story so far and what roam do you think it will take next, untill then, this is SunWhisper, signing out.


	2. Chapter 2: Crashing Down

So it's been a while since I updated this story HOWEVER, we're back, A New Dawn Chapter 2 is coming out now. Hurrah.

Don't forget, Favorite and Follow if you enjoyed, and review the chapters, drop a message of encouragement or hit me with your harshest criticism or even just let me know some little grammar error i missed either way i appreciate everyone who contributed to this story in one way or another. Big love guys.

Anyways in this chapter we go where do we stop ONLY I KNOW *laughs in evil fashion*.

* * *

Chapter 2: Crashing Down

Zero fell, he knew this because his sensors detected speed in his immobile shape, he knew this because the temperature of his outer armour increased as the friction of the air particles began to show it's form on his battered shape, but for all this, he was immobile, his thoughts turned to a very specific image, one he had forgotten, a girl, brown hair, blue eyes... Pain, pain shot through him like a hot knife through butter, he crashed on the ground and he let out a scream of pain as his body carved a small crater in the ground, his eyes shot open has he screamed in agony.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."

He panted heavily before trying to move anything really, he could not. _"I'm not dead, but I can't move either, I should be dead..."_ he thought back to Weil's last words _"As expected hero... he expected me to beat him?"_ Zero soon blacked out, his energy insufficient to even move.

When he came to, a week had passed, his eyes spotted a familiar image nearing the crater but he couldn't quite make it out, his vision was out of focus. The figure picked him up and put him on it's back before another approached and looked right at him.

"Earth to Zero" a female voice, he could make out a blue colour in the image he saw, and a finger poking his forehead "Don't tell me you forgot us already."

"Le-vi-a..." His eyes close as he speaks, eventually just dropping onto the carrier's back.

"Harpuia, are you sure about this? He's looking really bad"

"I know... We need to take him to the doctor."

Leviathan smiled, _"Damn it, you two are way too much alike"_ "What about you Fefneer? You're the one who's always harping on about beating him, this is as good a chance as you'll get."

Fefneer answered with a silly grin on his face, the one he always had when he talked about beating Zero, or anyone else for that matter. "I want to beat him when he can fight back. It's more fun to fight him that way. Besides we do owe him quite a bit."

"I guess you're right." Leviathan sighed, as they continued walking.

* * *

Ciel sighed as she balanced on a swing next to Alouette, they put it together from a bunch of junk really, a lot of scrap and weld it together, it was hard to have a good time even with Alouette, while Alouette swinged freely and laughed she tried to mask her sadness. Cerveau called Ciel over from the outside of the makeshift park they had constructed, she seemed slightly surprised to see him outside of his lab. When she walked near him he remarked "You're really bad at hiding your feelings."

She sighed, and her eyes began to water up. "He promised me... he'd be back... now he's..." tears began to run once more.

Cerveau embraced her as she cried, "You know, we need you as well Ciel, and he was our friend as well, although he might not have let it show in his words, what he did for us, for all of us, is worth more than anything he could have said."

The two stayed there for a few minutes until Alouette being a small child approached them. "Ciel why are you crying?"

"Oh..." she wiped her tears. "Don't worry about it Alouette, it's nothing." she said smiling to her "Come on let's go take you to see Neige and the others."

As the two walked away Cerveau stayed behind, "You two go ahead, I need to check on something back in the lab" _"You never worry about yourself first do you..."_

* * *

Harpuia finally stopped in the desert near area Zero, "This is the place." A hidden door opened in the ground the kind that resembles a bunker and there in front stood a red and white reploid, he had a round helmet and dark glasses on it, he also had a big shield strapped to his back.

"You're the ones here to see dad right? Come on in."

He looked different to modern day reploids, yet he seemed just as advanced. Harpuia spoke up with Zero still on his back. "X left us a message, told us to come here after Zero blew up Ragnarok, we had to find him first though, are you sure the doctor can fix him up?"

"He built X, he'll be able to repair... him... I'm just passing through, if it wasn't for my father wanting to, I would have just told you to piss off, he already killed all my friends once, I'd rather him not do it again, anyways here you are." With this the reploid left them to a dark room and exited the way they had entered.

Fefneer was the first to speak up "What was that all about?! And what's with the dark room?"

"My apologies" A figure appeared in a holographic shape in the back of the room, projected by a floating disk, it even mimicked a walking animation as the hologram moved around the room "It's been a while since I had to turn the lights on. And I was working on my son." X stood up from a table, he was still missing a great deal of armour, weapons, he waved. "He can't talk yet, I haven't installed his vocals yet, however this is a more pressing concern."

All three of them looked absolutely dumbstruck.

* * *

Ok guys that was it for chapter 2, a little on the short side, and a fun little ending revealing one of the plot points for the whole story, don't expect THAT many classic cameos, we might, see a few more depending on what I want to happen later.

If you enjoyed this chapter, the story or anything else, please as I stated above, Follow, leave a review, PM me complaining that your favorite character isn't in this yet, i'll think about putting them in. You can do whatever you want with it, I do like to know people are enjoying this, and the stuff I need to improve in the story. Untill Chapter 3 guys. Big love.

SunWhisper signing out.


	3. Chapter 3: Awakening Part 1

So, my life has mostly become College, so unfortunatly, this is as soon as possible for this chapter, as for story, well just enjoy, as always, share, follow and leave a review, if you want to talk to me personaly, PM me, no really, I love talking to the people who read my stories, so don't hesitate, I'm still active!

Either way, I know last chapter left a lot of questions. Some of you are happy about the inclusion of classic characters, some are annoyed to all hell, and some just don't care. Well what's done is done, and honestly I wanted a way to include some of these characters for the sake of my story, if you can't tell what they're going to be used for, well just read on! In this chapter I wanted to give a bit more insight as to what's going on in area zero, since I haven't touched nearly enough on the subject, mainly foccusing on Zero himself, especially for those who are fans of the seccondary characters of the franchise, which this guy right here is guilty of. Now don't worry there's pleanty of Zero, X and company in this chapter, I just felt the story needed this to be at it's best. (let me know what you think)

As always guys, enjoy the chapter, know that I love all of these characters megaman is my favorite franchise of all times and I'm just writing this to have a good time.

* * *

Chapter 3: Awakening Part 1

Neige was hard at work preparing the first issue of "The Z page", the first ever newspaper of the Area Zero camp, well, in reality it was beggining to shape more like a colony than a camp at this point, people had been building slightly more permanent homes with what they could find, she was hoping that it would help people's minds off the fact they faced extinction just a few days ago. And it helped her take her mind offit as well.

She heard 3 knocks at the door.

"Huh? Oh, I'm coming!"

She opened the door to see Ciel with a forced smile on her face, her eyes were red, and Allouette was in the background playing with the local kids. She gestured for Ciel to come inside, "Alouette sweety, me and Ciel will just be a moment." to which the child just responded with a hearty "OK" with a smile on her face as Neige closed the door to her trailer.

"OK, take a seat, I'll go make us some tea." Ciel sat down, crossed her arms on the table and let her forhead drop on them, she no longer had a smile on her face, she closed her eyes as Neige returned.

"You know, sometimes, I wonder what it would have been like, if the resistance just... never formed, or got wiped out." Ciel lifted her head of her arms as she saw Neige sit in front of her, she was looking at a picture she hung on a wall with a smile.

"Then, I think, If it didn't form, I wouldn't have gotten to meet him" Ciel followed her gaze to a picture where she was with a green reploid, a big one, then it hit her, for a moment she felt bad for coming over, she had no idea, then Neige continued.

"Every moment I had with him, every single one is a memory I don't want to lose. Now I don't know how things were with you and Zero, but this much I know. Craft was a soldier, and he was the toughest one I've ever met. If Zero beat him and had time to come down here to talk to us and apologize to me for it, and more importantly the guts to admit that he killed him, in front of me, he had some serious balls. To beat Craft you don't have to be tough, you had to be nearly indestructible. From what you've told me, you brought zero back and he easily beat a golem without it even scratching him, he then fought entire armies of Neo arcadia, beat the four Guardians, Killed copy X and fought for two years straight in the desert and somehow made it back to the resistance base alive, he then, got through a few more armies, killed Elpizo after he merged with the Dark elf and after that went after Weil."

Ciel had never thought of it that way, not since she first found Zero did she think of the impossible feats he performed from a realistic stand, her eyes were stuck on Neiges smilling face, that turned to her.

"Now knowing all of this, I wouldn't give up on him just yet Ciel."

Ciel had just heard something that she should be thinking this whole time.

* * *

Inside the secret underground lab. A caring old man continued his work on a mangled reploid, a robotic arm extended from his hologram projector, handing a chip over to X

"X, my boy, it's finished."

X smilled as he installed the chip in his throat. He coughed a bit but soon he was able to clear up his voice.

"Thanks dad."

The three guardians were amazed, they were in the presence not only of their original master, X, but also of his creator. In the middle of this shock Harpuia spoke up

"But I saw you be destroyed, with my own eyes!"

"Well that's true, but didn't you also see my copy be destroyed and rebuilt, then destroyed again, and my own self fighting alongside you when you fought omega?"

Harpuia held his tongue, something was at work here that was beyond their understanding. X remarked. "Well truth be told, I was surprised to be back here myself but it appears that my father didn't want me to leave this world just yet."

An endearing voice rose from the other side of the room, "Now X, I think you earned yourself another life with the stunts you pulled across the ages don't you think? Your friend here surprised me the most though."

X smilled and said, "Well that's Zero for you. In the meanwhile, why don't you three help me catch up on current events? The prespective of a spectral form can be... fairly narrow."

Fefneer finally sighed, and just sat down on a couch nearby, Leviathan moved to get a better look at Zero, and Harpuia, began explaning what had happened over the course of the last few years, they stayed there for a few hours, both Fefneer and Leviathan had fallen asleep on the couch, when a groan coming from the repair table catches everyone's attention.

* * *

Anyways guys, Zero's alive yes, surprised no one ever, but these next few chapters just might, now i hope you liked a little more of the area zero side this time. Now, the plot still hasn't been revealed, but hints have been dropped all over the place, i'm sure a few of you have already put some of the plot together. For those who haven't don't worry about it, after all this is a fanfic and you'll get more next chapter. Another thing guys, don't be afraid to contact me, best way is either to review my story or PM me in , if you have anything to ask me, or just want to chat.

Either way it's about time got some sleep for the day. Big love to all of you, this is SunWhisper, signing out.


	4. Chapter 4: Awakening Part 2

What is this?! Another update to the story? You betcha. Hopefully I can continue these updates on a weekly basis, the dream would be 2 times per week but I don't think I can manage that and be in college at the same time. Very short this time however.

Enjoy the newest chapter of A New Dawn, also do you prefer me to keep my mouth shut at the beginning of these chapters or do you enjoy the little updates? Let me know in the reviews of this chapter if that's alright with you guys. Also tell me if you prefer longer chapters with more of a gap (1 to 2 weeks) or shorter chapters like this one more often (maybe twice a week considering how much faster it is to make these)

* * *

Chapter 4: Awakening Part 2

Zero oppened his eyes to see some familiar faces. He was however, surprised to see that X was also with them, as well as the hologram of the doctor.

"Glad you could join us, Zero." X said.

"He's still not fully functional, but the repairs should have gotten him to the point where he can talk to you. If only Albert were here..."

Zero's mind briefely zoned out, showing him images long forgotten. Broken mangled reploids stood infront of him, their oil and entrails spraied across his hands and arms. He quickly regained his focus, dismissing it as some sort of side effect of being knocked out so long.

Fefneer backed off from the table, speaking up

"Yeah well, we'll monitorizing the surrounding area with your security systems doc, how'd ya build this by the way, I mean, not even Neo Arcadia had something this fancy."

"Oh, they're just some precautions, I figured it might have been time that I remained out of the flow of events, but circunstances force my hand."

"I'm surprised, we haven't seen Phantom yet" X began "His spirit left Cyberspace a few days before I came to this body."

"What?!" The guardians answered.

"X, if Phantom and you left Cyberspace, plus considering the fact that your father is repairing me, there might be the possibility of others..."

"Yeah... That's what I'm afraid of, Zero."

Zero leaned back his head, touching the table once again. It felt strange, he wasn't wearing his helmet for the first time in years, yet the injuries on his cranial structure were fully repaired, the gashes, bruises and otherwise missing limbs, still gave pain all across his body, but for one moment, he tried to enjoy in his mind, the fact that he was reunited with a friend. And soon he would be able to fulfill all of his promises, so for that one moment he let himself relax, smiled, and closed his eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile somwhere within the ruins of Neo Arcadia. Another reploid oppened his eyes, he was inside a stasis tank, the release process had just began. he glanced to each side slowly, analysing his surroundings, as a voice called to him.

"...Time to wake up..."

* * *

As Stated in the beggining, very short chapter this time, leaving it up to you guys though, let's see what you prefer, and don't forget even if you don't have a fanfic account, you can leave a guest review, which I will be sure to read.

Oh, special challenge for this chapter, let's see how many of you can guess who the reploid at the end of this chapter is.

Untill next time, big love guys, Sunwhisper signing out

EDIT: in the zero reflection lines, replaced problems with promises, hey, typos happen :P


	5. Chapter 5: Friends To Foes

Ok some background time for me deciding to make this story. I started this story after I played the entirety of the megaman story arch from beggining to end, and through this, analising the games, going to forums and debating as to what happened in the story, I reached my own conclusions, as to what capcom considers canon, I honestly don't care but in my view every single game from zero 4 onward is on an alternate timeline, I can't like ZX for the life of me and this is going to earn me a lot of hate I'm sure, but the story was so childish, I honestly don't like the game or the way it ties into the megaman story arch.

Now you may be wondering then what the hell are you doing writing this? Well this is MY vision of what would happen after Zero 4 as well as sprinkling in some generaly fan accepted theories with my own twist about the previous games, I'm glad i'm getting so many people viewing this story, it means that a lot of you are enjoying yourselves and keep coming back for more, I'm happy for that, and please as always, leave me a comment, criticysm and words of encouragement through PM or review.

Without further a do, Chapter 5, of A new Dawn. Also none of the messages I got so far have guessed who the reploid was in the last chapter.

* * *

Chapter 5: Friends To Foes

A few days passed, time in Area Zero was spent, building up the small camp into a more permanent settlement, progress was understandibly slow, as the resistance brought whatever help it could, they were still reffered to as the resistance but in truth, they had nothing to resist against, Neo Arcadia was totaled, the few survivors were slowly being found and brought to Area Zero.

Cerveau was working in his lab, as always, his job was to push the Ciel System to it's limit, see how far the system could go before it broke, he had so far been unsuccessful in finding it's breaking point. A knock on the door was heard followed by the hissing of it oppening.

"Good morning Cerveau, another busy night?" Ciel's voice was unmistakable, soft and caring, as always. "You know, those are going to catch up to you eventually, you should take a bit of care."

"Ah, Ciel, you've trully made something amazing, try as I may, I do not believe we will be having another energy crysis any time soon." Cerveau said as he turned around.

"Well, I did try really hard." Ciel said as she got set to work, "Another day at work honestly feels like a vacation after everything we've been through."

A couple hours passed, while Ciel and Cerveau enjoyed their time in the lab.

* * *

The day passed, and night fell upon them, Doctor Light, finally, he put down his tools.

"There we go Zero, your repairs took me longer than I expected. X, I'm going to take a rest, watch over the lab for me."

" _This isn't too different from our Maverick Hunter days"_ X thought, " _Zero's just sitting there with his thoughts, I'm thinking over today's events, the others are chatting around the place, the only person missing here is Axl, where could HE be of all people, this is just too much of a coincidence, Phantom, Axl, Zero barely surviving..."_

Zero neared the Guardian's who where discussing current events.

"Look I'm just saying, I know there's a lot going on, but I think I can beat him." fefneer was on his "I'm sure i can beat Zero eventually" speach, same as usual.

"Yeah, yeah Fefneer, you can't even beat me or Harpy yet."

"I don't think that's relevant leviathan, furthermo-" He interrupted himself, as he spoted Zero aproaching them, "Zero, can you enlighten us on what happened aboard Ragnarok?"

"Yeah, you looked bad, Harpy had to carry you over here the whole time."

"*sigh* I guess that means I owe you 2 now Harpuia, well here goes..." One explanation later "So, then I woke up with you three nearby."

"As expected huh? His last words, were as expected."

"Guys, we might have a problem" X calls the group over, the sensors in the Lab were lighting up," three signatures, too high on the powerscale to be friendly, but their path sugests they're going into the desert area."

With these words, Zero storms out of the room, leaving a sonic boom behind him, that trigers a few alarms in the base.

X was taken by surprise.

Harpuia told him, "I think I know where they're going, and so does Zero, but we need to move now ma- X"

"Let's go then".

* * *

Back at Area Zero, the resistance soldiers patrolled the area.

"Cleared sector Echo, moving on to Foxtrot."

"Underst-" the answer was cut off by static,

"Wha-" The soldier lost his voice, as he saw a hand bursting through his chest, as he fell down a he saw a reploid, blasting his squad with a couple of pistols, hitting every single one in his core with only a couple of shots before they fell. The last thing he got to see was a psychotic expression in the face of a dark blue reploid with glowing red eyes as it pulled his gun and shot his head off with a charged up shot.

* * *

Panic, chaos, explosions.

"W-what's happening Cerveau?"

"I don't know"

Neige runs through the door, "Ciel! Two Reploids, they're destroying the camp, we have to get out of here."

An explosion behind Neige knocked her out and into the lab, through the resulting fire, phantom stepped in, his eyes, blood red, staring down Ciel. His stare was as serious as ever, his katana covered in blood and oil, completly red he disapeared, only to apear in front of her, his cold look pierced through her, a shot whizes over both of their shoulders and hits Cerveau in the shoulder who was trying to pick up a buster he had for emergencies, phantom began his swing, it was all so fast, she closed her eyes, tears began to flow. She was screaming out, but heard nothing. There was a clank. the room went quiet. A green saber had stopped the katana.

"You're faster than I remember." Phantom said as he disapeared once again, the gunslinger behind them, took his time to turn and leave.

Ciel opened, her eyes, she couldn't believe it her crimson knight, had returned. "I was late, I'm sorry."

"No, you were just in time, Zero" She said as she embraced him in tears.

* * *

So, worst kept secret ever, Phantom and Axl are back, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, well sh*t hit the fan. This was the conflict starter, it wasn't anything too bad, yet, unless you count the murder of all those people and reploids, really bad, find out next chapter how bad it really was.

Until next time, I'm SunWhisper, and I'm out.


	6. Chapter 6: Unfortunate Circumstances

Ok this took a little longer than usual, I had to pause my writing for the last few exams of the first semester.

In this one we're going back to the slower pace of the story, not too much action in this chapter, it's a bit of a calm before the storm and just a bit of character development for everyone involved. A New Dawn has been a great project for me, and I can't tell you enough how much I apretiate you guys In all honesty, I had extremely low expectations for my first venture into but you guys have really been showing up, and it's been a really good boost to my spirit seeing all of you enjoying the story, you've done more for me than you'll ever know. Once again guys, I can't thank you enough!

* * *

Chapter 6 "Unfortunate Circumstances"

Zero returned Ciel's embrace for just a moment, while Ciel whispered "Thank you Zero...".

X and the guardians stepped into the room a few moments later, only seeing Ciel break her hold on him. When she looked at the door, she took a few steps back in surprise. It was like a ghost from the past haunting her, X. Was it X, was it another body for his copy, was he hostile like phantom, her thoughts were interrupted by Zero who noticed her concern.

"They're the real deal, Ciel, relax." Zero assured her.

"Zero, that was Axl"

 _"Does he mean the one that shot Cereau?"_ Ciel's thoughts were racing, how, why, when, for some reason, none of these seemed the important question at this time, _"I guess i should be glad they're back, it's good to see the real X after such a long time, but I'll have to ask my questions later,"_ she continued, by checking if Neige was ok, she felt her pulse, strong, and breathing, steady, that's as good a sign as she could get, _"hopefully she got away with only a couple of bruised ribs"_ she moved on to Cerveau who was barely conscious, his self repair system had kicked in but it was working very slowly, he was hurt but only superficial damage was sustained.

"I know X." It was so strange to her, Zero was back but something had changed. His actions showed care but his voice and demeanor we're so distant, he had always been like this, but something also felt different. "Go help the survivors, harpuia." Zero's gaze was inescapable, it felt like a stab straight through him. Zero turned his atention to Neige and Cerveau, who were still on the floor.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions Ciel... ask away." Zero said, as he began helping her to take care of their downed friends.

"OK." Ciel let out a long sigh as she checked Neige's injuries. She wanted to say it, she wanted it so badly, she wanted to tell him in more than a thousand words, but she couldn't, how could she, she was moments away from death, her crimson knight had returned and saved her once again, she bit her lip to the point of spilling her own blood without noticing. "Who was that reploid". She screamed at herself inside her own mind.

"His name is Axl, he was a good friend, but that's not his... usual behaviour."

"Very well. I'm glad you're back."

"You mean you don't have anymore questi-" Zero stopped as he saw Ciel's eyes beggining to tear up.

"Zero, please, I'm overjoyed about you returning, but just a few hours ago I was mourning you, just a few hours ago, my friends weren't laying on the floor dead, dying or injured a few hours ago we all thought we had peace, true peace... I, I just can't take all of this right now!" Zero held her by the shoulders, she looked at him surprised, he wiped away her tears.

"Ciel, I know this is hard for you more than anyone, but I promise you, I will bring you peace, all of you, I have spent my life fighting for peace, I am not about to let chaos win, not while I still draw breath, and not while I have all of you to protect. So stay strong for them, someone's got to lead them to our goal."

 _"Zero, thank you."_

* * *

"Did anyone else see that?" Harpuia commented to the others as they got out of the lab, and began to put out the flames and help the wounded, not that there were many wounded, mostly dead, those who did survive the onslaught were hold up in their homes, which were burning down quickly.

"You mean when Zero gave you the death stare?" Leviathan, spoke up "Yeah, but, what's with that all anyways, I mean, I've never seen him do that before. Why do you ask Harpy?"

"It's..." Harpuia sighed "Pay no mind to it."

X realized Zero hadn't looked like that in a long time, perhaps the last hint of anger he had shown was when Elpizo, trapped him and destroyed his original body. He thought to himself _"How much do you trully remember, Zero?"_ , this couldn't be a coincidence, this settlement was clearly targeted by them, but Axl never held a grudge against Zero, he had been one of their greatest friends ever since he got into the maverick hunters themselves, as for Phantom, he was an honour bound character, he wouldn't attack civilians like this, there had to be somthing behind them. Harpuia then realized something, the direction they took when retreating, it couldn't be... He interrupted X's thoughts for a moment "X, if they maintained their course after retreating, they came from Neo Arcadia." This statement shocked all of them, there was nothing there anymore, the refugees that managed to escape the city where either here or forming their own settlements away from here. But if that were true the ruined city wouldn't be so empty and destroyed after all, even after the orbital strike from Ragnarok. "But if they trully are going to Neo Arcadia, then it's our duty as guardians to investigate this, we'll go there and scout the area." Harpuia glanced at the other two guardians who nodded back, and prepared to move out.

"Harpuia, be careful..." He tried to warn Harpuia.

"Don't worry X, Phantom has never beaten me, let alone all three of us." with this the guardians teleported away.

"Phantom's not who I was worried about..." X muttered to himself.

* * *

Well that's it for chapter 6. As always leave me your thoughts comments reviews sugestions criticysm and words of encouragement both in Reviews and PMs. Believe me i go through all of them.

I'm also starting a warhammer 40k fanfic with a bunch of OCs, it should be up your alley if you enjoy this, and yes, this story is continuing don't think i'll favor one story in favor of the other. I just write these by 2 criteria, 1st availability, 2nd how the creative juices are flowing. Anyways that was just a small little announcement, next chapter to come out should still be "A New Dawn" over the new fanfic so keep posted.


	7. Chapter 7: At Hell's Gates

Hello everybody who's stayed tuned, It's finally time for chapter 7, I'm sorry about the on and off schedule of the fanfic, it just can't be avoided. Thank you for your continued support and don't forget, Follow the story for more, feel free to ask questions either in reviews or PMs either's fine.

If you just want to chat you're welcome to as well, I'm always looking for people to brainstorm ideas with, so you could end up influencing the story.

Happy reading.

* * *

Chapter 7: At Hell's gates

 _"The teleportation beacon malfunctioned."_ Harpuia thought to himself _"of course it did, what were you thinking, the city was destroyed by the ragnarok beam, everyone fled and millions are dead because of it."_ they had made the distance between them and Neo Arcadia roughly half of what it was, but the teleport landed them away from the intended target.

His thoughts were interrupted by finally realizing that Leviathan was staring right at him, she was bending over forward slightly with her hands on her hips, her face was literally 5 inches away from his, with a worried expression.

"When you think about bad stuff your face always frowns." she places her index finger between his eyebrows, "Right here, you get wrinkles, it makes you look like an old man. Stop thinking about it, don't care what it was, just stop."

Fefneer burst out laughing and Harpuia gave in, "What are you laughing at?"

"Well, you heard her."

Harpuia sighed and shrugged with a less worried expression. "Well, we should get moving, judging by the speed at which they departed the hostiles should have reached their destination by now." he started running towards their goal, _"What's this uneasy feeling?"_

It took them around 2 hours but they were finally at the city, when they got there, they saw ruins, bodies, pretty much the definition of death and destruction. They were greated by another unexpected sight, Phantom and the other reploid were standing right in front of a gate. The gate itself looked completly undamaged, it had a golden patern around the edges and it's centre had a giant omega symbol, purple and a white edge. There was an open "courtyard" for lack of a better word.

Phantom oppened his eyes, red as blood, he did not say a word, he drew his katana, Harpuia, Fefneer and Leviathan readied their weapons as well, Fefneer commented, "I've got gunboy over there." He pointed at Axl who had dawned a disturbing grin once more, his eyes lit up red as Fefneer let loose the first few shots. The action quickly broke down into two seperate battles, one melee based, and one from a distance.

In the melee, Harpuia and Leviathan flanked Phantom at every turn, every slash, tens of blows thundered between them, Phantom parried all of them and gave a bit of ground, a nod from the green reploid signalled Leviathan, Harpuia swung high with his Blades and Leviathan sweeped low, horizontal swings, Phantom jumped, his body spinning between both weapons, landing between them, Fairy jumped high in the air while Sage fired a barrage of sharkfin energy waves and phantom apeared between those, dodging them, then Leviathan fell upon him with her staff he raised his sword to deflect the blow, Leviathan let out a yell as her staff pierced the floor making a wave appear in a radious around her staff, which took Phantom by surprise and knocked him down, harpuia then let out an even faster set of energy waves, this time from the air as he hovered, each one hitting Phantom until dust covered the area. A laugh, no a cry, no some strange mix of both was heard from across the field, as Axl held Fefneer's unconscious body by the head with his hand, Leviathan gasped, a disturbing sound of metal crushing metal was heard, as Axl clenched his fist, they were petrified as a jet of blood sprayed upwards then a voice emerged from the smoke, "My turn..." Harpuia reacted first as a shadow apeared behind him barely able to block the attack but getting hit so hard that he got sent downward into the ground, he bounced off it as he tried to block unsuccessfully the follow up attacks, getting cuts in his harms chest, and legs. Leviathan stepped in with a yell "GET OFF HIM YOU MONSTER!" she struck the Phantom in the head with her staff, as she did Phantom's body disapeared and apeared behind her, "LEVY NO!"A punch pierced her from side to side through the stomach, she coughed spitting some blood, as an explosion happened in the background, that distracted Phantom, when he looked back he saw the two remaining guardians teleport away, escaping. "Run little reploids, run, for you've stumbled upon Hell's gates, and only the dead are welcome in them".

* * *

Yes another short one, I'm sorry, but hey I'd rather have something out than nothing, either way I mensioned there would be another story coming out last chapter, that's still in the works, we'll see how it goes. Enjoy this new Chapter and in a couple of days I'll have another ready, so hey be happy I'm on spring break.


	8. Chapter 8: Do you Remember?

Wow... it's been almost a year and a half since I've writen anything for this story, I can't believe it's been that long. To be perfectly honest, when I stopped writing this story and others that I had in the pipe, I did so for personal reasons. And I had to let go of one of my passions, writing this. I never expected to be back here again, and I have to say, it's all thanks to you guys, all your messages of support, I guess I really can't put it into words how much it meant to me, and how much it made me want to come back. So thank you guys, thank you for waiting, and thank you for keeping our fandom going.

Well then, now that you've brought me to tears (of happiness) and back I'm happy to present to you the VERY long awaited Chapter 8: Do you remember?

Once again the structure is as follows:

 _"thinking"_

"talking"

narrating

* * *

Chapter 8: Do you remember?

Zero finally had time to ponder, even if just while rebuilding the damage caused by one of his old comrades. He was glad that he was able to fulfill his promise to Ciel, however, the more recent occurrences troubled him greatly. _"Why like this, and why now, we were done, the fighting was finally supposed to be over, I was supposed to save these people not bring them more misery"_ his thoughts raced, it seemed like violence followed him anywere he'd go.

People were glad to see not only the real X back, which was explained after a bit of confusion as to who he was, fortunatly Ciel was there to soothe the diplomacy, but they had also gotten their champion back, the one that unified them, helped them work together. They had their spirits lifted about both of them returning but no one could see through the mask that zero always put on, that cold look on his eyes always he seemed to always be thinking but no one really payed any heed anymore, that was how he was, no one suspected anything would be out of place except for his other comrade, the only one to know him for so long that he could almost read his mind. _"I know you're troubled, you've been this way once before, after **that** happened." _ X was worried, but he was unsure as to how much Zero really remembered, his memory lapses hadn't fully recovered yet, he could remember back a hundred years to the elf wars, but could he remember much of anything before that. As X was hesitating on what to tell him.

Work proceeded throughout the day, both friends remaining in silence, Ciel busy as usual in her lab despite it's... structural weaknesses, ok let's be honest here, there was a giant freaking hole in the wall, she was helping Cerveau out, he was awake now but a bit too damaged to stand up from the chair he was in, she was atempting to remedy that, Neige was working on her paper, and everyone was trying not to think about what had just happened and rebuild, until later in the day, clouds were for once present, and it seemed like it might rain soon, even so a funeral was held in area Zero, in honor of those who had died in the battle of the previous day, _"What battle, it had been a slaughter, if only I was here sooner, if only I didn't take so much damge during the fight against Weil"_ Zero thought, clenching his fist, his look had slipped for a bit, Zero had anger plastered across his face, something that most hadn't even seen before, X tried to take him out of the croud for a talk but before he could even reach him, a hand grabed Zero's arm and pulled him away from the crowd, once he noticed who dragged him, X smiled and followed, keeping his distance, and finally hiding within eavesdropping range, he had gotten in position just in time to hear a well placed slap.

Zero had been taken by surprise when his arm was grabbed, he wasn't paying atention to his surroundings at all and whilst he could, judging from the strength of the pull, force both him and his 'captor' to stop he chose not to. When they both stopped they stared at each other for a couple of seconds, both hesitating on what they should do untill Zero began.

"Ciel I-" his voice was cut short by a slap across his left cheek a really well placed one at that, it hurt, it hurt way more than it should have, he shouldn't even have felt it, it was a weak, human slap but it took more weight than any hit he had taken in battle until then.

"Don't you dare say it, don't you dare say you're sorry, don't you dare say it was your fault." Ciel's eyes were locked on his her eyes were watering but still she held her tears "You did nothing wrong, if you weren't there to begin with I... We wouldn't have..." her breathing had hastened "Don't you dare go that funeral again, not with that look on your face, if you go there, you pay your respects not only to those we lost yesterday, but to all those who woke and saved you and me both, Milan, Passy and every other resistance and civilian member who fell to attacks like these, this is the first time all of these people have had time to greave, and for once I think you should as well". She walked past him back into the croud who were saying their last goodbyes.

There was no escaping it, Ciel was right and Zero lost himself in his memories and so he stood there in the rain that had finally started to fall.

* * *

Not very far from area Zero, a beam teleported two injured reploids in.

Harpuia was hurt, bad, he even took a hand to his chest where Phantom hit him with a precise slash, only to see his palm red as he removed it, his vision started to blur, but then realization struck him as he saw a hint of blue, through that, he took focus, he was hit badly but Leviathan was on the verge of death, and almost unconscious, the simple fact that she was awake at all showed her resielience.

She tried with a twitching hand and arm to reach for harpuia, but she hit her limit, her eyes lost all focus and she closed them dropping her arm.

"LEVI, LEVI, WAKE UP!" Harpuia shook her by the shoulders in a vain attempt to wake her up. Harpuia mustered all the energy he had left, put leviathan on his back and started stumbling towards area Zero, as best he could his only thoughts being _"How did it get to this"_

* * *

It's finally done, Chapter 8, I thank everyone that's stuck with me, that gave me their words of encouragement, and most of all thank you for still being megaman fans!

Reviews and Messages are as always apretiated I do read all of them, same for PMs, I'm always available for a small conversation.

Untill then guys, this has been Sunwhisper, and thank you for still being with me after all this time.


End file.
